Is the Watchtower beginning to lose its grip on its members? (page 2)

garybuss

The Society has lost credibility and control except with a minor hardcore group of members.

OnTheWayOut

I would love to broach the subject of the internet and the Watchtower with my relatives

Don't do it. They are still "in" and the control may assert itself if you push the issue.
If they are being disobedient, let them progress at their own pace, or discover stuff
as it comes to them from other sources.

NOW, if they ask, that's different.

JH

perhaps this is going to mark the beginning of a slippery slope for the Watchtower as its members become more disobedient and less afraid to disobey.

I remember when an elder friend told me years ago, "You have to be obedient"

fullofdoubtnow

Hi Gill,

I sense a definite shift, particularly with the younger ones, away from the wts in this area. Many kids are living double lives these days, and it's more than possible that the life they lead away from the kingdom hall will triumph once they leave home. Only a few weeks ago, Tev and I were in our local pub and saw 7 or 8 young jws, aged from around 19 to 23, all in the back room playing pool, drinking fairly heavily and smoking. One of them was the po in our old kh's daughter! She is a regular pioneer, so I'm told, but didn't seem to thinking too much about the ministry that night, she was more interested in the boy she was with, as well as the booze and cigarettes. There were a couple of other elders kids there, also smoking and drinking.

If that trend is repeated elsewhere, and I imagine it is, then the wtbts are losing their younger generation to the "world", and aren't even aware of it yet, but I guess they will find out eventually as many if not all of these kids gradually drift away from the org, or are disfellowshipped, which I am sure those we saw would be prime candidates for if the news of their conduct got back to the elders, and never return. And I doubt the situation will improve for the org as the next generation of kids become teenagers, and see how much happier their peere are away from the jws, and follow suit. There will always be some who submit to the brainwashing more than others and stay of course, but I don't see the current trend being reversed now. The wts has promised so much for so long, with nothing fulfilled, and nothing new to offer to its younger generation that stands much chance of keeping them in the org. The wts is gradually dying, and it seems to me that while the gb and elders are aware of the pressure exerted by the internet mainly from the outside, they aren't aware that the org is imploding from within as well.

Linda

Fangorn

Most of the dissatisfaction is very private and only mentioned to close friends, if then, but the actual volume is quite large. It will not be that significant until it becomes more open.

Gill

So it it true! The Watchtower is succumbing to the inevitable......it is dying, or as Ian so aptly put it, 'It is dead, but just doesn't know it yet!'

OnTheWayOut - I know that you're right and I certainly wouldn't broach any sensitive topics with my relatives yet. There is still only awkward conversation when we're together.

JH - The WT has been bashing the 'obedience' topic for the last year now. But it just doesn't seem to be working any more.

Garybuss - I absolutely agree there will only be a hard core of JWs left in time.

Fullofdoubtnow - The young JWs in our area are just as you describe in yours. I'm quite envious of them really... as I wish I had known it was BS sooner.

They not only KNOW it but are not afraid to get out there and live. There are a few that I know that are either very afraid of their parents or thoroughly brainwashed.......but that's for now! Time will tell with the stragglers.

Fangorm - Now that the internet is widely available, even people with doubts can 'meet up' and discuss their doubts without consequences!!

zack

Most younger ones do not stay. What options are open to them? Most young people want to get an education. Nothing wrong with that. They want a family. Nothing wrong with that.

They want to spend time WITH their family. And then they see that if they did everything the WTS tells them to do, they would never have time for their familes, never would have a family,

and would not have a job that could support a family. They look at their parents and grandparents, aging or dead, and DO NOT want to end up like them. Here is the Kicker:

More and more parents DO NOT want THEIR children to end up like them either. S, they end up not listening to the "suggestions" from Brooklyn. More and more have figured out and

are taking the position that if it's not in the Scriptures, then God left it up to them to decide.

Zack-----

jayhawk1

I read on another board, that the shunning policy is reaffirmed in January 2007 issue of the Watchtower.

Yes the propaganda machine is still working overtime. It makes me wonder if these "timely messages from Jehovah" are just a reminder that the shunning rule is still on the books.

More and more parents DO NOT want THEIR children to end up like them either.

I hope this is really true.

Gill

Zack! You have reminded me of when my eldest son, at fourteen, decided he was never going to the meetings again, just after his father decided the same. Then, my eldest daughter said she would never go again.

I remember thinking, even when arguing with them, 'why should they go?' I realised I didn't want them to be like I had been and wanted them to be free. So I let them stop going. In time I followed them all.

The young ones are leading the way. Perhaps, in time, the older ones will follow....I hope!

fullofdoubtnow

The young ones are leading the way. Perhaps, in time, the older ones will follow

This might happen Gill, though I think there will still be elders who want to hang on to their power, ministerial servants who will want to be elders and elders wives that enjoy the "prestige" that being an elders wife supposedly gives them for some time yet. I do think however, that as their kids leave, some of the less ambitious jws will start to ask questions about the org's teachings, and when they don't get satisfactory answers, which they won't because the wts don't have them, then they will at least slacken off, and some will leave.

Maybe the collapse of the 'tower isn't as far in the future as many of us think, as the current decline is there for all but who are prepared to see it.

Is the Watchtower beginning to lose its grip on its members?

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